Anastasia hated sneezing.

It was always a violet reaction, one that she couldn't hold inside for the life of her. And yet, that was all she had been doing for the past several minutes, just as she and others waited for their teacher to arrive.

Mukuro Tucker was typically always late but...

Anastasia was feeling more impatient with each passing second. If he didn't show up within the next sixty seconds, 'I'll just go home,' she told herself. 'This isn't worth it.'

"I swear to God, I'll do it..." she muttered to herself, speaking through her clenched teeth. Her nose was already rosy from each time she blew it, rubbing it against the sandpaper handkerchief that was school toilet paper.

Lumiel sat at her side. "Do what?"

But before Anastasia Velda could answer, her near-obsidian eyes began to water. She sneezed again, particles of spit and saliva and mucus burst through her orifices like water in a cracked dam.

"Fuck!" she shouted, slamming her palms into the desk.

The other students turned to her in confusion.

She stared back, her jaw clenched as she held in the embarrassment. "...Sorry," she choked out, muttering into the stark silence of the classroom.

The Virtues were back in school. Back in their uniquely structured and purely wooden classroom. Well, they had been for the past several months. And day by day, they had finally gotten closer to the dawn of the third demon.

"So..." Lumiel asked as everyone went back to their own business. "You're sick."

"I'm not sick. It's just allergies."

Lumiel stared at her. "There's not a single cat in this building, Velda."

A laugh burst from Leonard's lips. "Anastasia, you're allergic to cats?" he asked.

Anastasia clenched her jaw and turned to Leonard at her side. She opened her mouth to speak. But before she could say anything, another sneeze forced its way through her.

The explosion of air and particles of mucus all landed on Leonard.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom and cry about that," he said, quickly standing up and shuddering to himself.

He hurriedly ran down the steps and left the room, just as Anastasia let out a breath through her mouth and dropped her head onto the desk.

The empty thud clattered on the shared table. And the corners of Lumiel's lips began to arch upward. She couldn't help it, after all.

Anastasia was never like this. Even as the two had known each other for nearly six years, Lumiel had never seen her sick, much less seeing her suffer over a handful of sneezes. "You're strange, Anastasia."

She raised her head from the desk, her ebony hair cascading over her face as she turned to Lumiel. Anastasia tried to take in a breath through her congested nose as she pushed her hair back behind her head.

"I hate you, Lumiel."

Lumiel snickered. "You say that too often. What if I actually believe you someday?"

All either of them did was stare at each other. "That'll be your problem," Anastasia said, once again facing forward and gritting her teeth in a grand attempt at holding in a sneeze.

Her throat was dry and scratchy, killing her from the inside. Droplets of sweat began to form at the side of her head with her ever-so-slight-fever. And as unfortunate as it was, her pale hands were clammy and unsteady.

What's worse, her sneezing and congestion showed no sign of ceasing.

And so, she pulled herself together and forced herself to remain motionless. That wasn't a common method at all. But for Anastasia Velda, it was reasonable.

It didn't take long for Leonard to return. And with him, Mukuro Tucker.

Anastasia seethed.

That was entirely on her. If he had taken just ten seconds more in his arrival, she would've left without issue. But now she was struck, constricted by her own ideals. Now... She had no excuse. By her own rules, by her own standards, all she could do was bear it.

But for now, she took comfort in the fact that Alexander wasn't there to sit next to her and poke fun at her current state. She feared that Alexander and Lumiel would joke too much.

Sure, she might laugh herself once in a while. But that wasn't something she had the patience for today. Of course, Leonard sitting in his place didn't help with Anastasia's problems and agitations.

Tucker cleared his throat to silence the chattering class. And without an apology for his tardiness, he began to speak.

"Honestly, you guys... We're ahead of the other classes."

Each student stared at him in steady silence.

Mukuro Tucker stared at a file, filled with a dense stack of papers. At the middle of such a stack, sat one in specific. He read it to himself with a smile.

"I'm just a genius of a teacher," he muttered to himself. "Seriously."

He raised the single sheet for the class to see, as if any of them could read off what the entire sheet had to say. "We're advancing faster than any of the other General Studies classes in this school."

The teacher had to pause. He read more carefully into the paper, before exclaiming out with a laugh. "Dude, are you serious?!" Tucker guffawed.

"Your scores and grades are better on average than those in the other branches of the Academy! I knew this from the start!" he proclaimed. "Those kids from the California Branch are too smug for their own good!"

A hearty sigh left his lips. "God, this feels great," he said, sliding the paper into a shredder.

It became dust in an instant. And with that, Mukuro Tucker sat himself down at his desk. He ruffled his jet black hair, which had been combed neatly in the minutes prior. That was already a rarity in itself, so to see him back to his loud and eccentric self was something to be glad of.

"Alright, you guys can do what you want for the rest of class. Go home, if you want," he said with a laugh.

Gabriel stared at his watch. Tucker had been in the room for something over than two plain minutes. And class was already dismissed.

All of the other students had already gotten up and quickly prepared themselves to leave. Some of them had even left already.

But before Gabriel or any of the Virtues could get out of his seat, Leonard broke into conversation.

"Can we talk about the elephant in the room?" he asked.

They all turned to Leonard.

"He's talking about the demon," Giovanna said, letting out a sigh. "Mammon. Greed. Whatever you wanna call him."

"What about him?"

Leonard stared back. "Dude, he's being summoned tomorrow. And we're just... at school. No preparations, no discussion with Archibald, just.... Nothing."

"In all honesty, I think we've moved on from that. We've handled a lot on our own. So... All we have to do is move." Liam spat out a sigh. "Fight when we have to fight, and do what must be done."

Giovanna stared at her desk and paused. "Wait, are we basically soldiers now?"

"No, that's illegal," Lumiel told her. "That'll be like child endangerment or something," she said with a light chuckle.

"Okay, but we're endangered all the time."

She nodded. "But that's out of free will, anyway."

The Virtues collectively nodded and mumbled in agreement.

"If anything..." Liam said. "The only problem with the demon is the fact that I don't know what's going on with Alexander. I haven't even seen him since last week."

"Yeah, I actually haven't seen him in the past few days, either," Leonard pointed out. "Is he even alive?"

"I actually saw him yesterday."

Furrowed eyebrows and confused stares were all Giovanna was met with. Her statement was nothing short of surprising, after all.

"What?" she asked. "I was studying with Emilia."

"Huh?"

"Why?"

Now, the stares of the Virtues turned to the cinnamon-skinned girl that sat just a handful of feet away. Alexander's sister instinctively turned towards them as she was heading out of the room.

A slight wave and a gentle smile was all she offered before she walked out.

Giovanna managed to wave back beforehand. "She's practically my best friend," she said, turning back to the Virtues. "But as I was saying... Alexander was fine. He'll probably be here tomorrow."

Gabriel scratched the side of his cheek. "That doesn't really explain why he isn't here today, though."

A cough was what Anastasia interjected with. Her running nose forced her to keep a paper napkin to it as she spoke. "I think most of you guys are forgetting the fact that he witnessed the death of a child."

"She's right," Lumiel agreed with a nod. "It's gotta be trauma of some kind, at least. That's not really something we should question like this."

Gabriel raised his legs and crossed them onto the desk. "Well, as long as he shows up tomorrow, it'll be fine."

Lumiel wanted to smack Gabriel for putting his feet on the desk. But... Was he finally acknowledging Alexander? Gabriel hadn't directly said it, but it was almost as if he understood Alexander's importance.

Maybe Gabriel accepted that when it came to combat, but not necessarily for them as a group. 'But it's improvement!' she thought to herself with a smile. She ran her finger past her hair and the side of her head, sliding her golden locks behind her ear.

"So... We'll be fine?" Leonard asked.

"Of course, we will. We've always been fine in the end," Liam said, already standing up and swinging his bag over his shoulder.

Anastasia sneezed.

Stares confusion and thoughts of concern ran through each of the Virtues.

Giovanna spoke first. "Anastasia... Are you gonna be alright for tomorrow?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she said. "I'll be fine by then. Hell, I'm fine now." She ran a bolt of lightning from her finger into the napkin she held. It quickly ignited, only to burst with the overflow of energy.

"See?" Anastasia asked. She wiped slight water on her eyes with her black sleeve. "Don't worry about it."

"Alright!" Leonard spat out, standing out and pounding his palms onto the desk in the same instant. "I gotta go talk to Tucker about my grade," he finally said, noticing that everyone else had already left the room. "I'm singlehandedly bringing down that class average he spoke about."

This was not something to be proud of. And yet, that was all Gabriel could sense in his voice.

He quickly stepped down and began to head towards the teacher's desk when he noticed no one had followed him.

Leonard stared at them. "Arent you guys gonna back me up?" he asked.

"What?"

"Dude," he said, stepping back up to the others. "He scares me sometimes. I need you guys to back me up here."

Anastasia stared at their teacher. He was laughing and giggling to himself, like a child upon seeing a dog for the first time. That was the best way she could put it. And in all likeliness, he was probably looking at videos of dogs or animals of any kind, knowing him.

But she spat out a sigh with the Virtues' collective thought.

'I'll go just because I don't want Leonard to repeat that nonsense.'

And so, they all walked down with him.

With the group of students approaching him, Tucker quickly quieted himself and faced them in complete seriousness.

"So, Mister Tucker..." Leonard began to say.

A sigh left his lips as he stood up.

And before either of them could speak a single word, a gem fell from Tucker's shirt.

It was stark white, yet still glowing with a blue hue even as it clattered onto the wooden floor.

"Ah."

That was all he uttered out. And Gabriel's eyes widened.

The instant the crystal had dropped from his body, all of Tucker's magic had disappeared.

He wasn't just imagining it, was he?

But that confusion slipped his mind in the following second. Mukuro Tucker knelt over and reached for the crystal. As soon as his fingers came into contact with it, he shuddered ever so slightly and looked back up at his students.

As soon as his fingers came into contact with it... His magic energy returned.

Each of the Virtues processed it one by one. Different thoughts, different processes, but the same conclusion.

'Mister Tucker...'

'He has no magic.'

'It all comes from that crystal.'

This was all in the span of a single second.

"So..." Tucker said, staring at them, his eyes scanning over his students. "What did you guys want to talk to me about?"

Leonard swallowed his dry saliva. "Well..." she muttered, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Tucker... Why don't you have magic?" Gabriel asked him, his icy eyes glaring at his teacher as he placed his palm against his desk.

The Virtues let out a collective sigh.

Lumiel smacked the side of Gabriel's hand once again. His hair tousled to the side but his glare remained. And...

Their teacher couldn't help but laugh. "Well, you guys caught that quick. I don't think most people would figure that out at that moment. It was, what, just a second? That's quick judgment on your part."

"Don't flatter us," Gabriel said.

Leonard muttered, "Well, I actually appreciate it."

Again, Tucker laughed, only with a light chuckle this time. "So... As unfortunate as it is... I'm cursed. Plain and simple."

"You're cursed?!" some of them shouted in unison.

"Yep," he said, opening his desk drawer and ruffling into the mess he had inside. "It's called the Curse of Heaven."

Their eyes followed him in silence as he gently placed the sheathed blade onto his desk. It was a sheath constructed of lapis lazuli. Pure azure gemstones, aligned perfectly with one another to fit into a sheath. Bronze ran down its sides and connected it, encircling it with an ornate design on each side.

He pressed his hand against the scabbard and pulled the blade out.

"This is Damascus steel, by the way." A smirk grew on his lips. "It's so damn cool."

But he digressed.

Tucker stood up. "Simply put," he continued. "...It leaves the body devoid of magic. The energy of life itself. And in exchange, it gives the curse-bearer attributes that are impossible to obtain."

"Some obtain superhuman power. Others are practically just sorcerers. All to put them on the same level as most magicians," he uttered, his eyes focused on his blade as he unsheathed it. "I... I obtained the ability of natural healing."

Leonard's arm shot up from the crowd of Virtues. "Mister. You do realize humans can already heal themselves, right?"

Lumiel smacked Leonard's head this time.

Gabriel thought back on Vanaheim. That dark-haired boy... 'Hector Hild, was it?'

... He was a Curse-Bearer. And a bearer of the Heaven's Curse, at that. That's why he had no magic. That's why he was so strong.

Tucker only smiled at Leonard's question. "Yep. But for me, it works a bit differently. It's automatic. And much faster."

Without a single warning, he slammed his hand against the table. The echoing clatter was a surprise enough. But what made it worse was the fact that he drove his silver knife into his hand.

"Yo-" Liam began to exclaim.

Cries and shouts left the lips of Leonard and Giovanna. And within their collective shriek, Anastasia's eyes widened and Gabriel's jaw dropped.

Their teacher had clenched his jaw, drawing in a breath through his grit teeth. His grip still remained, his fingers coiled tightly around the lapis lazuli hilt. He let out a sharp exhale through his nose and withdrew the blade.

Once again, he drove it down, digging it into the wooden desk. And with nothing more, he raised his bleeding and cut-open hand for his students to see.

Giovanna had covered her eyes, and Leonard was already looking away. Lumiel and Anastasia couldn't help but stare at what was happening, even as they wanted to run from that horrifying sight.

And yet, Liam was unfazed.

The thin sliver of the stab was enough for Gabriel to see through. Blood oozed out of the wound, surrounded by more red flesh. But it wasn't long until the bleeding stopped.

It wasn't long until the flesh began to mold itself together. It grabbed hold from the center, pink and raw tissue stemming outward and grasping onto the rest of the wound. Blood vessels repaired themselves, muscle and bone fixed themselves.

And just seconds later, his hand reformed into the perfect skin he had just moments ago.

"I think that suffices for an explanation, doesn't it?"

"Yep," Giovanna choked out. Leonard nodded and Lumiel had already made her way to escape the room and the hellish sights within. As for Anastasia, she simply shook her head in disgust and disappeared with a burst of energy and a flash of jagged light.

"I regret all of this," Leonard said aloud. "I think I might be sick."

Tucker laughed. "Have fun with that. And don't worry about your grade, kid. Just take real notes in class and you'll be fine."

He swallowed his dry saliva and quickly ran out of the door, bursting past Lumiel in his sprint for the toilet.

Giovanna and Liam followed.

And now, only Gabriel remained in the room. He stood with a smug smile as he said. "Y'know, my Uncle Charles can do the same thing."

"Who?" Tucker asked.

Gabriel stared at him.

"I'm just joking," the teacher laughed. "I already know he can. But it uses magic, and it takes up time. He ages every time he uses it. Which is why I hope he stops it. That time magic has been messing him up, hasn't it?"

Gabriel nodded. "It has. But it's fine."

They fell into silence once again.

"So does this mean you're immortal?" Gabriel asked him, crossing his arms.

"Nope," he said with a slight smile as he put his things away into his bag. "Still mortal. I still age. But without any of the problems. No joint pain, no muscle pain. Oh, and I don't get sick. So that's pretty fun."

"One more question, Tucker," Gabriel said.

In most cases, he was always referred to as 'Mister Tucker' by his students. But he didn't think Gabriel was being disrespectful. He had already accepted that way of being. And so, he nodded, accepting whatever question to come.

"Is there... even a point in you teaching magic if you don't have it?"

Mukuro Tucker stared at his student.

'Oh. Was that offensive?' Gabriel asked himself. But before anything else, his teacher gave hsi response:

"Yeah."

His response was so plain, Gabriel didn't even expect it. He furrowed his eyebrows in conclusion.

"Of course, there's a point. I teach because I'm good at it. I know a lot of magic, especially for someone who doesn't have it. I can help the upcoming generations become the best that can be. Humanity becomes stronger and safer, magic advances more and more. And little by little, I have some effect on our world. What more can a man dream of?"

Gabriel swallowed his saliva. Mukuro Tucker was someone who had always struck him as strange, weird in all facets and capabilities. And after his display of his curse, now more so than ever.

But after his words just then... A strange sense of familiarity and respect filled Gabriel's heart.

He wanted to speak. He wanted to say anything he could about that feeling. But before he could, his teacher put forth his fist.

Tucker didn't extend his open hand. He gave only his clenched fist. "So... Good luck tomorrow, Archibald."

Gabriel remained confused, and bumped his fist into Tucker's.

Reading Gabriel's expression, Tucker only smiled. "Yeah. I know about your group and the demons. My wife's a Paladin, dude."

The Virtue quickly figured that. Tucker knowing about the Virtues and the Sins didn't mean much to Gabriel. The problem was...

No, it wasn't a problem at all. It was something he couldn't help but smile at. "It's just... You called me Archibald. I don't know why but... Thanks for that."

Tucker smiled. "Go home, kid." He stepped forward and with his long, lanky legs, walked past Gabriel and left for the door. "Like I said," he spoke, his back facing his student.

"Good luck with what comes tomorrow. You're going to need it."